[LRUG] [JOBS] Freelancer. And some reflections.

[Sam Livingston-Gray]

Good morning from sunny* Portland, Oregon!

Looks like there's some good coverage here of distributed vs colocated and
"regular" employee vs. contractors.  I'd like to chime in on the topic of
being open to part time employees, which strikes me as a huge cultural
blind spot, not to mention an excellent way to improve diversity &
inclusion in the workplace.

The short version is:  there are plenty of people who, for a variety of
reasons, may not be able to sustain full-time employment.  I personally
know talented developers who are parents, who manage a variety of chronic
medical conditions, who have side businesses, or who just have other things
in their lives that aren't work (like the friend who used to work a few
hours in the morning to overlap with the east coast, go for a two-hour bike
ride, shower, and then work a few hours in the afternoon to overlap with
the west coast).  It's probably a mark of my own class privilege that I
don't personally know anybody who's the primary caregiver for a family
member, but that's another important one.  That's just a quick list off the
top of my head; I'm sure we can come up with a few dozen more.

All of those people have valuable perspectives to contribute, and we should
all know by now that any company that doesn't incorporate diverse ideas
will, in the long run, underperform in the market.  (Personally, I find
that the least interesting reason to advocate for diversity, but that's the
one that seems to appeal to capitalists, so.)

I have some personal experience with this as well:  I once had the honor of
recruiting a woman who started MSCS from Berkeley a full decade before I
got my first programming job, and pairing with her 10-15 hours a week to
help her get up to speed on Ruby and web development.  She worked part time
so she could keep her other (non-tech) practice going, and she was one of
the best maintenance programmers I've ever worked with.  The team she was
on for over two years would have been measurably less well off without her
on it, which is exactly what would have happened if my VP of Engineering
hadn't been willing to say "Part time? Yes, let's give that a shot!"

So I encourage anyone reading this to reconsider whether the advantages
they're getting from only hiring FTEs are worth the tradeoffs in terms of
access to a latent talent pool.  (Another appeal to "enlightened self
interest": such folks are probably also predisposed to be loyal to a
thoughtful employer willing to give them a shot, since their own access to
work is, by definition, also relatively limited.)

--

Anyway, Thomas, your situation sounds like a more extreme version of mine:
 for years, I've limited my job search to companies that are (a)
remote-friendly, (b) enthusiastic practitioners of pair programming, and
(c) able to effectively use my rather specialized skills.  Each of those
requirements knocks out the majority of companies looking for engineers, so
by the time you layer a few of those filters together, you're looking at
maybe 2-5% of companies that it's even worth *considering* reaching out to
a recruiter.

In your case, the combination of trying to work (a) part time (b) remote
(c) for a London company may be even more restrictive than my filters:
 even just (b) and (c) together might do the job.

I was listening to a podcast the other day and heard an interesting idea,
though:  maybe each of those filters also makes it easier for you to focus
your efforts?  :)  If you have the ability to travel back to the UK for a
few conferences, maybe you can submit proposals for talks either about the
amazing benefits of expanding a company's hiring pool, or about something
else you're good at (and you can mention at the end that you're available
for work).  Or maybe you can enlist a few local allies to keep an ear out
and advocate for you?

-Sam

--
* actually it's 4 degrees C and rainy #VeryPortlandProblems
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